Improvement in apparatus for extinguishing fires



W. E. PRALL.

. i R f/Dv -CJ 1min WNW NTT STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM E. PRALL, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 176, 147, dated April 18, 1876; application filed March 25, 1876.

To all 'whom ltmag/ concern:

4Be it known that I, WILLIAM E.,PRALL, of 'Washington city, in the District oi' Columbia, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires in Towns and Cities, which is fully set forth in the following specification, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings.

In extinguishing fires in towns and cities it is essential to concentrate quickly at the location ot' the tire an abundant supply of water, and abundant Apower for forcing the water in large volume to great heights or distances. To meet these requirements watermains are chieiiy relied upon for the water-supply, and portable steam boilers connected with firepumps, constituting the well-known steam tireengines, are provided and manned at great cost. As the steam-generators must be transported very rapidly upon wheels their size and consequent power and capacity is necessarily so limited as that the extreme of power which can thus be supplied is quickly reached, and is very small as compared with stationary boilers; and, moreover, as the size and power ot' the force-pumps in'these engines is determined by the amount ot' power available tol drive them, these are also comparatively small; hence, wherevthe lire is located in the upper part of a very high building, or where the water-supply is insufticient from mains close at hand, or in ease ot' extensive contlagrations,

the best tire apparatus now in use proves very L insutticienr. The object of my invention is to remedy these serious defects in the present system by transmitting, through the agency of compressed air, the power obtained from stationary boilers to the portable lire-pumps after they have been transported to any given point, and connected with the usual watermains, and to dispense thereby Wholly with the need of portableI power-generating apparatus, substituting therefor pumps ot' greater power and capacity. i

In the accompanying drawing, A is a watermain of the ordinary description; B, a main of air-tight pipes kept charged with compressed air by means of powerful stationary machinery. C and D, C' and D', dto., are, respectively, hydrants or water-plugs, and airdelivery valves or plugs, arranged in pairs, proximately, so as that connection can be readily made to an air-plug for operating a portable tire pump or engine, whenever it is connected to a water-plug for obtaining a supply ot' water. E is a large and powerful force pump or engine mounted on wheels, substantially as are the ordinary forms of fire-engines. This. pumping engine is driven, as required, by the air delivered from the main B, and as the capacity of the machinery for furnishing this power may be increased far beyond what is possible with any form of portable machines the power of the pumping-engine is correspondingly increased by this invention. In fact, the power of immense air-compressing machinery maybe concentrated at any point reached by the mains, and the pumps driven thereby (because of the greatly-increased motive power driving them and their larger size) can be made to transmit the water very much farther, and deliver it with greater force and larger quantities than is possible in the present system.

The apparatus is less costly, requires fewer attendants, is wholly free from danger of explosion, requires no fuel carried in connection with the pump, and is less liable to become the subject or the cause of accidents than the present cumbersome apparatus.

I claim as my invention- Y An improved apparatus for extinguishing res in towns or cities, consisting of a series of suitable delivery-plugs arranged in pairs,

one ot each connecting with a main charged with compressed air, and the other with a water-main, and both combined with a portable'pumping-engine, to be supplied simultaneously from any pair of the series with air for power and water for delivery, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

W. E. PRALL. Witnesses:

W. R. BERGHOLZ, DAVID A. BURR. 

